News Archive

Here’s a useful article that looks at the fate of university-licensed startup (ULS) life sciencecompanies over the last few years. There are more and more such companies (a greater than tenfold increase in their number since 1990), but a comprehensive look at success rates (and how such rates vary according to the universities involved) has been harder to come by. A lot of work went into this overview, and I’m glad the authors were able to assemble it. They spent a lot of time digging through tech-transfer records and contacting universities to make sure that they’d covered everything, checking venture capital announcements and state corporate registrations, and searching through press releases, LinkedIn pages, and more. The data that they have produced look like the best we have on the subject.

The University of Maryland announced Wednesday that it has appointed a new president.

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents appointed Darryll J. Pines to succeed Wallace Loh. Pines’ appointment is effective July 1, and he will be the 34th president of the University of Maryland, College Park.

Pines has been the A. James Clark School of Engineering dean for the past 11 years. He has been with the university for 25 years, starting as an assistant professor in 1995.

Image: https://umdrightnow.umd.edu/news/usm-board-regents-appoints-darryll-j-pines-president-university-maryland-college-park

The NIA Office of Small Business Research (OSBR) team is intrigued by startups and their unique role in research and development. Of course, we’re a bit biased — after all, we lead NIA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs, which are designed to help new companies commercialize products and technology to extend the healthy, active years of life.

Representatives of various industries trekked to Annapolis for a marathon hearing on several bills aimed at generating revenue for public education reforms.

Image: Representatives from the Maryland Department of Commerce said getting rid tax credit programs would send a signal that the state is not committed to growing businesses and supporting economic development. BBJ FILE

ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) is accepting proposals to lease a bio-manufacturing facility configured to produce biologicals under cGMP conditions in compliance with FDA requirements for phase I/II clinical trials. The facility is also equipped to perform process development research, pre-clinical manufacturing for material necessary to conduct IND-enabling toxicology studies, proof of concept (POC) studies, and process demonstration in advance of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) manufacturing. IBBR is a joint research enterprise between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Image: https://finance.yahoo.com

Rebecca Stauffer, Parenteral Drug Association Managing Editor posed the following questions to PDA Letter Article readers in fall of 2019. “What if developers of cell and gene therapies treated their products like software releases? What if the human body could be manipulated like a highly complex computer?”

We invite you to join us for a LIVE and interactive presentation from Jeff Galvin, CEO of American Gene Technologies sharing his passion, vision, and conviction of “reprogramming the human computer.”

Image: https://www.eventbrite.com

With the coronavirus growing more deadly each day, several companies are racing to produce the first vaccine or antiviral medication to combat the spread of the virus. One company that seems to have made large strides towards finding a vaccine, is Gaithersburg-based Novavax.

The genome of the coronavirus was published last month, which opened the floodgates for potential vaccine attempts. Novavax is most notable for releasing an Ebola vaccine within 90 days of the genome being published in 2015, and they estimate they could have a similar timetable for this vaccine as well.

The streets of Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — are empty and quiet except for the sound of loudspeakers squawking quarantine instructions to its sheltered-in-place residents. Flights to some Chinese cities have been terminated. A Tokyo, Japan-based travel agency has canceled nearly 20,000 of its Chinese package tours. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus, which has already killed more people than SARS, a global health emergency. There are currently 11 people stricken with the novel virus in the U.S. and over 17,000 are infected globally with numbers jumping exponentially by the day. 

Image: https://biobuzz.io

Citizens across Virginia need health solutions and affordable health care to live full, healthy and productive lives. Lawmakers in the General Assembly are examining a broad range of policies in an attempt to relieve the burden of rising health care costs. But some of the proposals under consideration might have unintended consequences for both patients and Virginia’s innovation economy. As our elected officials consider how to address health care costs, they should ensure that any measure provides meaningful financial relief to patients and preserves the environment for medical innovation in Virginia that delivers groundbreaking treatments and creates thousands of high-paying jobs in the commonwealth.

Image: Kelli Price Photography